EASTERN COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 753 
such matters, or it may be, that our daily routine of practice, and cases 
not always of a minor kind, drive such things from us. In turning over 
the leaves of a favorite author, say Shakespeare, what beauties in 
nature we have pointed out to us, which we then recollect to have seen, 
although not noted before, but now our attention is drawn to them, we 
view such subjects with interest of no common kind. The subject of 
hereditary diseases, and peculiarities, the result of breeding, is one of 
real interest to us, and as such will open to our inquiry. In the lower 
animals, as in man, we see the great resemblance reproduction pro¬ 
duces. Shakespeare noticed this in Titus Andronicus. “ But when the 
bull and cow are both milk white they never produce a coal black calf” 
(Act 5, sc. 1). There is hardly an organ in the body that does not give 
proof of this peculiarity; hereditary tendency to disease shows itself in 
the transmission from parent to offspring. Reasoning from analogy, in 
the human subject an animal that at birth more closely resembles its 
parent, should be found more likely to develop the peculiarities of its 
sire or dam, as the case may be. 
This can only be explained on the supposition, that the internal 
organs, like the outer ones, bear a very close resemblance. We know 
that we can scarcely find any organ of importance which shows any signs 
of diseased action, but that the same is transmissible to descent. 
Indeed, from affections of the lungs, and brain in man, we can come to 
no other conclusion, but that the inner vascular structure, the blood¬ 
vessels and nerves partake of this peculiarity. Taking the subject 
literally, we can I think, prove that no organ or texture, however 
remote, is exempt from its chance of hereditary taint. Every part that 
is capable, or rather susceptible to deviations^froin the natural structure, 
is capable of transmission to offspring, and of producing morbid effects. 
One of the singular varieties of this principle is “roaring in the horse,” 
this peculiar sound has sometimes been lost, in one generation reap¬ 
pearing in the next, and that too most strongly marked. A variety of 
hereditary disease is its partial or complete limitation to the male or 
female of any sex, although in the horse this is not so strongly marked 
as in man; the operation of castration often rendering a violent and 
fractious animal really docile, whilst in a mare of the same breed, the 
natural infirmity of temper still exists. In man, we see hereditary 
traces of disease in whole families, and inquiries instituted have traced 
these various peculiarities through generations—tuberculous disease of 
the lungs, diseases of a scrofulous nature, and gout being especially 
well marked. What we may avoid in the lower animals by judicious 
commingling of sexes can hardly, except in special cases, in ourselves 
be observed. 
We find yet this sound advice ; the application may, however, not at all 
times be a matter of so practicable a nature : 
“ Marry 
A gentle scion to the wildest stock, 
And make conceive a bark of baser kind 
By bud of nobler race ; this is an art 
Which does mend nature, change it rather, but 
The art itself is nature.” 
What we may expect from a theory, we find strongly developed as a 
fact; some whole breeds of horses stand work well, others are wbat 
horsemen term “soft,” and subject to very early decay. 
In ourselves, disease of some important organ may exist, and be held 
in check by carefulness and conforming to certain habits to obviate such 
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